Pawn to Queen (a one-shot)

This is a one-shot that I’ve always wanted to expanded into something more… Perhaps you can let me know your thoughts one that 🙂

Summary: As Sarah grows she transforms from a pawn to a Queen…A Goblin Queen if Jareth has anything to say about it…

Pawn to Queen

Sarah Williams, a young woman of 23 years, was rather unremarkable. A recent graduate of Boston University, Sarah was just another mouse running through the maze of life in search of any sort of cheese worth eating. She was tall and slim, although one would be hard pressed to call her skinny. With long brown hair so dark it was almost black flowing down to her waist and hunter hazel green eyes that held contradictory looks of wonder and wisdom, Sarah Williams was said to be passably attractive.

Overall, she was a nobody, an attractive nobody to be true, but rather unimpressive nonetheless- that is, only to those who don’t know how to look.

There was a kindness in her eyes and true warmth in her smiles that people unconsciously found themselves drawn to. She had a quiet air of authority, grace and confidence, but was also able to laugh with others and even at herself. Her peers often found themselves seeking her advice and unbiased opinions, or even a sympathetic ear that always managed to soothe their worries.

While general consensus held that Sarah was a nice girl, if somewhat odd with her obsession with fairytales and myths, she was also known to be firm in her convictions and fair in her judgments. She was a silent role model and leader.

But no matter how many sought out her words, there were few who would truly call her friend.

Ask anyone who knew her and they’d say that Sarah Williams was a natural leader who could inspire a dying man to live, but there was still something just not quite right about her. Her college roommate, Shirley Price, for example, had often complained to anyone who would listen about Sarah’s habit of hogging the bathroom.

Now, one could claim that bathroom hogging was a completely natural habit for a young female, but Shirley would then go on to explain that while Sarah was locked up in the bathroom, she could hear Sarah laughing and talking as though she was not alone. Even stranger was the fact that her bathroom hogging habits happened precisely the same time everyday at 4pm, and sometimes, she wouldn’t even come out until well past dinner.

One time, Shirley had been so curious as to what Sarah could possibly be laughing about that she actually peeked in. And there Sarah had stood, facing what had to be the bathroom mirror (Shirley couldn’t quite see it from her angle), her face happier and more alive than anyone had ever seen, and she was grinning as if she was seeing an old childhood friend.

Shirley had tried to listen to what she was saying, but Sarah was laughing as she spoke and she could only make out two faint words:

“Oh Hoggle,” Sarah had sighed in an odd, loving way.

Shirley had quickly left after that in fear that her crazy roommate would catch her eavesdropping and cut her up into tiny pieces in order to feed her mashed up pieces to her fuzzy, red-orange cat named Ludo.

No one had quite looked at Sarah the same after Shirley had spread that little story around town.

Not that Sarah even cared that people thought her to be two cents short of common sense. She was young, but confident and comfortable with herself. She knew she wasn’t crazy and that was all that mattered to her. Besides, everyone was still nice enough to her and they still looked to her for advice and comfort. And Furthermore, those mean-hearted enough to actually rudely verbalize what most already thought always managed to see the light after experiencing odd dreams in which goblins tortured and teased them while an odd, smirking man with mismatched eyes and wild blonde hair watched.

They never remembered the dreams exactly in the morning, but they always awoke with the overwhelming need to apologize to Sarah. This was just as well for had they actually remembered the dreams, they may have felt compelled to share them with her, and Sarah most definitely would not have been pleased about them or more specifically, the smirking man with mismatched eyes and wild blonde hair.

But that is neither here nor there because Sarah didn’t know how fiercely the goblins defended her honor, or that their King allowed them and even approved of their actions.

Not that the Goblin King had said one word on the matter to his subjects. One who did not know better might mistake his silence for disapproval, but the goblins, who had known their King for over 400 years, knew better than to try to interpret the King’s thoughts. If their King did not want them to defend their Lady’s honor, then he would simply forbid them to do so.

And besides, the King seemed to enjoy himself while watching their games with those who dared to insult Sarah Williams. In fact, the King actually insisted that they leave the worst of them for him to deal with himself, mainly those that had actually made her cry, or worse, those that had made her smile and blush too many times in their direction.

But Sarah was oblivious to her self appointed honor guards. In her mind, she was a completely normal human being who just so happened to have lengthy conversations with her other-worldly best friends through mirrors.

Yes, she was a perfectly normal nobody- that is, to those who did not know how to look.

And it was not her fault that the Goblin King saw what she truly was when looked at her: a perfectly beautiful young woman with the quiet grace and authority of a budding Queen.

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5 thoughts on “Pawn to Queen (a one-shot)”

Just stumbled onto this… Labyrinth was one of my childhood favourites too (along with Dark Crystal and Princess Bride!)
You should definitely expand this into a longer story. There’s so much good stuff here. I love the idea of Jareth and the Goblins defending Sarah’s honour using dreams 🙂